Members,
The CDC has issued revised guidance related to COVID-19 and Healthcare Personnel. Please see below for summary of changes.
1. The Infection Control Guidance for Healthcare Personnel now eliminates the consideration of vaccination status of health care workers when determining next steps in the event of new symptoms or exposure, (ex: screening, quarantine, or additional precautions needed).
The CDC no longer recommends masking and/or other source control for employees who are seeing patients in low risk COVID-19 areas, saying "When SARS-CoV-2 Community Transmission levels are not high, healthcare facilities could choose not to require universal source control. However, even if source control is not universally required, it remains recommended for individuals in healthcare settings who:. Have suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection or other respiratory infection (e.g., those with runny nose, cough, sneeze); or Had close contact (patients and visitors) or a higher-risk exposure (HCP) with someone with SARS-CoV-2 infection, for 10 days after their exposure; or Reside or work on a unit or area of the facility experiencing a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak; universal use of source control could be discontinued as a mitigation measure once no new cases have been identified for 14 days; or Have otherwise had source control recommended by public health authorities." Please remember that if you are in a high risk area, source control is still recommended. You can check your county risk level HERE.
As with our state expectations on screening, the CDC feels that COVID-19 screening of health care workers is now at the discretion of the agency, saying "Performance of expanded screening testing of asymptomatic HCP without known exposures is at the discretion of the facility."
They have also changed their stance on some testing recommendations saying now that COVID-19 testing is "generally not recommended for asymptomatic people who have recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection in the prior 30 days." They do still recommend that "Anyone with even mild symptoms of COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status, should receive a viral test for SARS-CoV-2 as soon as possible."
2. The Interim Guidance for Managing Healthcare Personnel with COVID or Exposure to COVID now states "In general, asymptomatic HCP who have had a higher-risk exposure do not require work restriction, regardless of vaccination status, if they do not develop symptoms or test positive for SARS-CoV-2." The guidance includes updated recommendations for testing frequency to detect potential for variants with shorter incubation periods and to address the risk for false negative antigen tests in people without symptoms.
3. The Strategies to Mitigate Healthcare Personnel Staffing Shortages has updated the conventional strategies to advise that, "in most circumstances, asymptomatic healthcare personnel (HCP) with higher-risk exposures do not require work restriction, regardless of their vaccination status; therefore, the contingency and crisis strategies about earlier return to work for these HCP was removed."
4. The Ending Isolation and Precautions for People with COVID-19 updates guidance to reflect new recommendations for isolation and precautions for people with COVID-19, and removes both the Assessment for Duration of Isolation and Key Findings from Transmission Literature sections so page provides most current information.
Please review the guidance for additional details and share it with applicable staff.